702 



ROUMANIA. 



has been extended by the Legislature for thirty- 

 two years longer. The state domains, derived 

 partly from the expropriation of monastic es- 

 tates, have been offered in small parcels under 

 easy conditions to enable the peasantry to en- 

 large their possessions, a privilege of which the 

 large land- owners have also taken advantage. 



land in Roumania. The Roumanian proprie- 

 tors receive usually a net annual profit of 6 per 

 cent, on the market value of their land. 



Navigation. The total tonnage entered at the 

 Roumanian port of Sulina, on the Danube, 

 in 1883 was 829,988, against 915,259 tons in 

 1882; the tonnage cleared, 831,016, against 

 904,676. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The length of 

 the state railroads in operation July 1, 1884, 

 was 1,401 kilometres; under construction, 546 

 kilometres ; under contract, 224 kilometres. 

 The total cost of construction was 416,950,- 

 000 francs; gross receipts in 1883, 26,936,952 

 francs; expenses, 16,305,687 francs. 



The number of private letters forwarded in 

 1883 was 7,825,709; of official letters, 2,024,- 

 699; postal-cards, 1,300,216; newspapers and 

 circulars, 4,065,813; parcels, 435,369 private 

 and 85,006 official ; postal orders, 129,257. 



The length of telegraph lines in 1883 was 

 4,755 kilometres; of wires, 9,989 kilometres; 

 the number of private internal messages, 723,- 

 183; external, 318,891. The receipts of the post- 

 al and telegraph service amounted to 4,081,136 

 francs, the expenses to 3,930,272 francs. 



The European Commission of the Danube. After 

 the expiration of the term of the Danube Com- 

 mission, created by the Treaty of Paris in 1856, 

 and continued and endowed with larger pow- 

 ers by the Berlin Treaty in 1878, a new com- 

 mission was constituted, which held its first 

 meeting Nov. 3, 1883. The financial accounts 

 for 1883 show receipts to the amount of 3,966,- 

 791 francs, and expenditures amounting to 

 2,706,107 francs. The only remaining debt of 

 the commission, 2,528,690 francs, was extin- 

 guished in 1 883. The total tonnage entering the 

 Sulina mouth of the Danube in 1883 was 784,- 

 903. The steam tonnage was 706,520, of which 

 549,520 tons were English, 65,125 French, 51,- 

 512 Greek, and 12,777 German. The sailing 

 tonnage was 78,383, of which 35,714 tons were 

 Greek and 33,799 Italian. The principal article 

 of export is grain. In 1882 the exports of ce- 

 reals from the ports of the lower Danube were 

 6,629,843 quarters, against 5,401,441 in 1881. 



Revision of the Constitution. The political ques- 

 tion of the year was that of electoral reform. 

 The subject came to an issue in the Chambers 

 in the spring. As has happened before when 

 similar questions have arisen, C. A. Rosetti, the 

 intellectual leader of the Government party, 

 whose uncompromising radicalism has rendered 

 him impracticable as a minister, differed with 

 Bratiano, the Premier, on an important point 

 in the programme. The system of different 

 classes of voters was the object of Rosetti's at- 



tack. "When the committee -on electoral revis- 

 ion made their report to the Chamber in the 

 beginning of April, a vote was taken on Ro- 

 setti's proposition to abolish the separate classes, 

 by which the ministry was left in a minority 

 of 48 to 57. Bratiano and his colleagues there- 

 upon offered to resign, but the Kingdeclined to 

 accept their resignations, and they were induced 

 to remain by a vote of confidence. Mustering 

 its supporters, the ministry obtained a reversal 

 of the previous vote. The revision scheme 

 was carried through the Legislative Chambers, 

 which sat in extraordinary session for the re- 

 vision of the electoral law and certain other 

 articles in the Constitution, from May 22, 1883, 

 to June 20, 1884, and received the signature of 

 King Carol July 12. It wrought no radical 

 change in the electoral system, but was a com- 

 promise between the advocates of democratic 

 principles and the old aristocracy, like the 

 original electoral law of 1866, which it modifies 

 in a liberal direction. It effects, nevertheless, 

 a material transfer of political power. The 

 law of 1866 gave the landed aristocracy half 

 the votes for the lower chamber, and made the 

 Senate a body representing that class and the 

 ecclesiastical hierarchy exclusively. Under the 

 old law two senators were elected in each dis- 

 trict, one by the rural proprietors, and one by 

 the owners of town property that received a 

 clear annual rent of at least 300 ducats, or 2,- 

 170 francs. The Church possessed a seat and 

 a vote for every diocese. Under the new law 

 the rural and urban proprietors vote in one 

 body, while the cense is reduced to 2,000 

 francs, and senators and deputies that have 

 served two terms in the Legislature, ministers 

 and ex-ministers, judges, staff-officers, doctors 

 established six years, members of the Academy, 

 and certain others, possess votes without re- 

 spect to their landed possessions. Furthermore, 

 a second electoral college is created, which in- 

 cludes proprietors deriving an annual profit 

 from land of at least 800 francs, professional 

 men and magistrates not in the first class, and 

 also merchants and manufacturers paying a 

 certain amount of taxes. The old electoral 

 law for the Chamber of Deputies established 

 four classes of electors. The first class was 

 identical with the senatorial electorate ; the 

 second comprised all that received a clear an- 

 nual rent of 100 ducats ; the third embraced 

 the mercantile and industrial classes, with the 

 limitation of eighty piasters paid in direct taxe?, 

 and members of the liberal professions; the 

 fourth embraced all Roumanian citizens not in- 

 cluded in the other classes. The electors of the 

 first three classes voted directly, those of the last 

 indirectly, every fifty voters choosing a sec- 

 ondary elector. The new law merges the first 

 two classes into one, which elects proportion- 

 ally as many deputies as both classes formerly. 

 The property qualification is fixed at 1,200 

 francs. The third class, the second under tbe 

 new law, is widened so as to include all citi- 

 zens that have received a complete common- 



